Public Events

SMRI hosted two after-school workshops for high school students at the University of Sydney to celebrate National Science Week on Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 August 2023.

What do a space station, a falling cat, and a springboard diver have in common? They are able to reorient themselves while in free fall.

In this talk by University of Sydney mathematician Professor Holger Dullin, he explored the principles behind this phenomenon.

To celebrate Women in Mathematics Day (12 May), SMRI hosted a screening of the short documentary “Olga Ladyzhenskaya” (2022) by acclaimed filmmaker Ekaterina Eremenko.

Everyone was welcome, particularly high school and university students of all genders.

What does the French revolution, a deadly duel and squaring a circle have to do with the birth of modern algebra? SMRI’s public lecture on 14 March was part of celebrations for the 2023 International Day of Mathematics, aka Pi Day 3.14.

“Duels and Duality: A fable about the life & mathematics of Évariste Galois” was presented by mathematician Oded Yacobi of the University of Sydney.

Esteemed algebraic number theorist Professor Frank Calegari gave a public talk on the secrets of Pi, presented by SMRI as part of his 2022 Mahler Lecture Tour .

In this talk, Frank explored a conjecture (formalized by Grothendieck) which explains how seemingly different occurrences of Pi (as well as many other interesting mathematical constants) should all be related, and how these numbers are linked to some the biggest open problems in algebra and number theory.

SMRI Director Professor of Mathematics Geordie Williamson explored how machine learning can help with the intuitive aspects of mathematical research. Geordie carried out one of the first applications of AI in pure mathematics, in collaboration with Oxford University mathematicians and DeepMind, the AI company of AlphaGo fame. The results were published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature in December 2021.

This public event took place on 15 March 2022, co-presented with Sydney Ideas.

Since prehistoric times, humans have used knots for their functional and aesthetic value. Knots, links and braids have held decorative, artistic and spiritual significance across a myriad of cultures. For mathematicians, the study of knots has led to insights in disciplines such as geometry and topology.

Professor Purcell’s research explores some of the surprising applications of knot theory.